The present disclosure relates to a refrigerator.
In general, refrigerators are home appliances for storing foods at a low temperature in a storage space that is covered by a door. For this, refrigerators cool the inside of the storage space by using cool air generated by being heat-exchanged with a refrigerant circulated through a refrigeration cycle to store foods in an optimum state.
In recent years, refrigerators have become increasingly multi-functional with changes of dietary lives and gentrification of products, and refrigerators having various structures and convenience devices for convenience of users and for efficient use of internal spaces have been released.
The storage space of the refrigerator may be opened/closed by the door. Also, refrigerators may be classified into various types according to an arranged configuration of the storage space and a structure of the door for opening and closing the storage space.
The refrigerator door may be classified into a rotation-type door that opens and closes a storage space through rotation thereof and a drawer-type door that is inserted and withdrawn in a drawer type.
Also, the drawer-type door is often disposed in a lower region of the refrigerator. Thus, when the drawer-type door is disposed in the lower region of the refrigerator, a user has to turn its back to take out a basket or foods in the drawer-type door. If the basket or the foods are heavy, the user may feel inconvenient to use the basket or may be injured.
In order to solve such a limitation, various structures are being developed in which the drawer-type door is capable of being elevated.
Representatively, a structure provided with an elevatable storage container on a rear surface of a withdrawable door is disclosed in Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2008-0101335. However, in this structure, a connection portion between the door and the storage container may be exposed, and electrical devices and structures for the elevation may be exposed to cause serious problems of safety in use.
Also, a structure in which a basket is elevated by an operation of a support member provided on a door is disclosed in Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2006-0053420. In this structure, a support member is exposed directly from a rear surface and a bottom surface of the door to cause problems in safety in use.
As described above, in the related art, the constituents for elevating on the door side are disposed in an exposed state, which results in poor appearance and a safety limitation.
Also, there is a limitation that it is difficult to separate and install the structure for elevating the basket in which the food is accommodated, making service and cleaning management difficult.
Also, the basket having a structure in which substantially the entire basket is elevated during operation of the elevation structure. In this structure, when the food inside the basket is eccentric, it is difficult for the basket to vertically move stably due to the eccentric load. In addition, the basket may be severely deformed and damaged.
Also, the entire basket for elevation is withdrawn to the outside of the refrigerator body so that a draw-out distance is relatively long, and the structure for elevating the basket is additionally disposed on the door to be unstable when the door is withdrawn, there is a limitation of deformation and breakage of the door and the constituents for inserting and withdrawing the door.